Expert: Massive force caused fatal injuries to child

September 18, 2003|By BRIAN SCHROCK, Daily American Staff Writer

A doctor with about 30 years of experience in forensic pediatrics said Alexander Stull's injuries could not have been caused by a simple fall, and instead required the kind of massive force created in a high-speed automobile accident.

"This was not a minor fall; not a short distance fall. It was not someone trying to jump off the top of a playpen and someone trying to stop him. This was violent force," said Dr. Holly Davis, a physician at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.

Stull, a 17-month-old boy from Meyersdale, died April 27, 2002, at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh from injuries sustained four days earlier. The cause of those injuries is the main point of contention in a murder trial that resumes Monday.

Police contend Todd Mitchell, 23, of Meyersdale assaulted the boy in his mobile home while he was baby-sitting for the boy's mother - girlfriend Heather McKenzie. McKenzie left the home to go to a local convenience store and a friend's house.

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Prosecutors have yet to indicate exactly how the boy's injuries were incurred.

Mitchell's defense attorney, Jerome Kaharick of Johnstown, has implied throughout the trial that Alexander sustained the injuries by falling from a playpen, either of his own accord or with the unintentional assistance of his 3-year-old brother.

McKenzie testified Wednesday that the brother would try to pick up Alexander, but would never hurt him intentionally. The baby was described as inactive, and was just learning to crawl.

On the day in question, Mitchell drove the injured boy and his brother to his aunt's residence along nearby High Street to dial 911.

After some cursory medical treatment at the scene, the boy was transported by ambulance to Meyersdale Medical Center, then flown to Children's Hospital.

Davis said Stull was in "extremely critical condition" upon his arrival in Pittsburgh, with sporadic breathing and a slow heart rate.

She said the boy underwent a CT scan, which revealed bleeding beneath his skull and between "the two hemispheres of his brain.

"There was shifting of the mid-line of his brain to the right side" of his head, she said. "It was very ominous."

Davis said Stull's injuries - which included a contusion above the left eye and severe swelling - were the result of a "massive application of force."

She compared that force to what a child might experience if the car he is riding in is "broad-sided" by another vehicle, or the force he would experience if he was jumping on a trampoline and fell against the apparatus. Davis said it is unlikely the boy's injuries could have been sustained by a fall indoors.

"Unless it's in some atrium of two or three stories, like that found in a hotel, it would not cause that magnitude of injury," she said.

Under questioning from Assistant District Attorney D. Greg Geary, Davis said she could say "with an extremely strong degree of medical certainty," that the boys injuries were not caused by a simple fall, nor did they appear accidental in nature.

Davis discounted a theory that Alexander's brother may have made the fall more severe by pulling his brother from the makeshift crib.

Based on the child's injuries, the doctor said it was possible the child endured multiple blows, but she could not say for sure. No one outside of the house witnessed what happened in the bedroom on that day.

According to testimony, Mitchell was alone in the house with both boys.

Davis was the second "expert" witness to testify Thursday on behalf of the commonwealth.

Earlier in the day, prosecutors called Dr. Abdulrezak Shakir, a forensic pathologist with the Allegheny County Coroner's Office. Shakir performed an autopsy on the boy's body April 28, 2002.

Shakir described contusions and abrasions on the boy's body - about eight in all - while graphic photographs of the injuries were shown on two television screens. The photographs prompted at least one woman to leave the courtroom, but Mitchell showed no emotion, sitting stone-faced throughout the proceedings.

Shakir later admitted, under questioning from Kaharick, that many of the boy's injuries could have been caused by medical equipment or sustained as a result of treatment.

The pathologist said the boy died of blunt force trauma to the head. He ruled the manner of death a homicide.

"The amount and distribution of trauma on this individual is more than what we see in normal everyday accidents," he said.

Unlike Davis, however, Shakir declined to rule out the possibility that a fall caused the boy's injuries, saying there is a "1 or 2 percent possibility" of sustaining serious injuries from a fall of that height.

The baby boy, who was 33 inches tall at the time of his death, was standing in a playpen half a foot shorter, according to testimony.

Shakir said a fall from a height of eight feet or more, or one encompassing a twisting motion, is more likely to produce serious injuries.